Dutch Accounting House - Barentszplein 4-E

I share with you my tale of woe.... This firm did my annual filings for the years 2015, 2016, and 2017. During the year 2020, I met a client who works as a financial controller. He also speaks Dutch. Together with him, in a couple of hours, and over a beer, he re-filed my 2017 taxes and brought my charges down from 500 euros to Zero euros. Therefore, we may conclude that during 2017, I paid the Dutch Accounting House 350 euros for the pleasure of paying 500 euro extra in tax. Furthermore, I want to stress that no magic was involved. My client simply adjusted the allocation of assets between me and my wife. It was a matter of plugging-in numbers for the percentage, and the online belastingsdienst software did the rest. My friend can read Dutch and obviously knows his way around tax terminology, but I presume the staff at Dutch Accounting house do too. So I wonder how I ended up 850 euros poorer for going with them.... But before I learned all that, i turned to the Dutch Accounting House to do my 2018 taxes. In violation of our standing contract, they wrote: Thanks for your request. We can assist with this but please note due to updated company policy we are obligated to receive (and be able to verify) your entire administration for 2018. This means the costs for these services are substantially increased. Please note in your case we expect costs will be at least € 500 ex VAT. This quotation specifically does not include composing your 2018 annual accounts. If we also need to compose and/or adjust your 2018 annual accounts these expenses will be charged additionally at hourly tariff of € 140 ex VAT hourly.